I'm all for extolling the virtues of Steely Dan and taking a closer look at just how weird and subversive some early '70s soft rock really was (and how it influenced the post-punk avant-garde, e.g. Meat Puppets, Tuxedomoon, etc.), and I think the suggestion that a decent number of these musicians appropriated hyper-capitalist imagery as a way of undermining it is an interesting assertion, but the orthodox Marxist framing is such obvious pretentious claptrap.
Jacobin tends to miss the point a lot. I feel like it's written primarily by people who have these very strong left-wing convictions but don't really know what being poor or disadvantaged actually means.
I'm really hoping that you're not one of those people who think that welfare and single-payer healthcare are the work of Satan, because for as understandable as your objections to the Maduro school of "this is how wealth redistribution works right" socialism are, there's a point at which opposition to a particular manifestation of an idea creeps over into the endorsement of equally terrible ideas.
I'm really hoping that you're not one of those people who think that welfare and single-payer healthcare are the work of Satan, because for as understandable as your objections to the Maduro school of "this is how wealth redistribution works right" socialism are, there's a point at which opposition to a particular manifestation of an idea creeps over into the endorsement of equally terrible ideas.
No, I don't think so. I think welfare, single-payer healthcare, public schooling are a very important for the maintenance of capitalistic society under a bourgeois democracy. Typical examples of this are the kind of wild capitalisms practiced in scandinavian countries. I'm all for it.
I think you need to understand, though, that "socialism" encompasses a very broad expanse of different ideas and ideologies, and when somebody here, for instance, says that they think of themselves as a socialist, it's generally unfair to conflate their ideas with the sort of post-Leninist authoritarian tradition that Chavez and his successors operate within, to say the least.
I could, for instance explain to you why I dislike Marx's take on communism, but why and how I also think that neoliberal capitalism as it currently exists is unsustainable and destructive, but your attitude towards socialist ideas *in general* makes me hesitant to explain myself to you, as I feel like my explanations might fall on deaf ears.
Well, this conversation started with JacobinMag and some marxist writer, didn't it? I think it's fair to assume I'm referring to actual socialism, not social democracy or anything socialists consider wild capitalism.
i (ill-advisedly) read enough of this to be reminded that there's an irony leftist dude who actually went to syria to go fight with the kurds and honestly i'm still kind of amazed by that
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I do actually not feel good that nobody in this shitty fucking city cares about movies that aren't by Adam Sandler or based on a novel EL James so I would appreciate it if just this once people didn't make fun of me for daring to choose to watch The Oscars
I do actually not feel good that nobody in this shitty fucking city cares about movies that aren't by Adam Sandler or based on a novel EL James so I would appreciate it if just this once people didn't make fun of me for daring to choose to watch The Oscars
do any of these people use "Hollyweird" or some such term
Comments
And the fact that this person goes by J. Temperance warms the cockles of my heart.
I do at least appreciate not completely missing the point of Steely Dan's music like that Jacobin article the TNR one is responding to did.
I have also generally liked what I've read of TNR, FWIW.
Speaking of which, I think it's telling that Internet socialists who belong to minorities tend to be less annoying than white Internet socialists are.
I think you need to understand, though, that "socialism" encompasses a very broad expanse of different ideas and ideologies, and when somebody here, for instance, says that they think of themselves as a socialist, it's generally unfair to conflate their ideas with the sort of post-Leninist authoritarian tradition that Chavez and his successors operate within, to say the least.
I could, for instance explain to you why I dislike Marx's take on communism, but why and how I also think that neoliberal capitalism as it currently exists is unsustainable and destructive, but your attitude towards socialist ideas *in general* makes me hesitant to explain myself to you, as I feel like my explanations might fall on deaf ears.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
I look forward to the blank-eyed incomprehension that will happen if I bring it up to anybody IRL
it's an award show. Bleh